Port Logistics - Term Paper Example

 «Ports Logistics» Introduction Sea transport has for a long time now been a vital channel for the delivery of goods of different kinds from one point to the other in the UK. Were it not for sea transport, international trade would be struggling since its varied cargo ferrying capacity remains unmatched by other transport systems. It therefore follows that management of the port business is an important area in not only internal but external business operation. Port logistics involve management strategies used by port management and government agencies to ensure efficient goods circulation from their origin to their destination in such a way that satisfies the needs of the customers. Relevant key areas in the shipping industry include the ferrying of the goods in the sea to the destination, then delivery to the final destination. Cargo deliveries here have a global tag and the importance of international business can only be handled with strict caution that it deserves to ensure tapping of its benefits. Port systems must put in place the various improvement strategies targeting various stages of the shipping business. The Humber has a natural inland water system that includes Hull port an important port in UK today. The Humber region has Grimsby, Immingham, Hull and Goole ports. Goole port is on the Yorkshire side of Humber estuary and is used for steam communication with London and other principal continental ports (Willington 2008, p.119). Immingham port is found on the Lincolnshire coast to the north of Grimsby port and it has a fine deep harbour. The harbour was constructed by the Great Central Railway Company between 1906 and 1912. The deep water channel of Humber leads to the dock gates and makes the port suitable for entry and exit of ships. The deep water channel also keeps the harbour clear of silt (Willington 2008, p.120). Geographic Location of Ports in UK According to Stopford, (1997, page 29) he defines a port as a geographical area where ships are brought alongside land to load and discharge cargo. In the UK, the management of the biggest port services occurs in the Humber region controlled by Associated British Ports (ABP), operating more than 21 ports. This implies that the services at the ABP have a direct influence on almost the entire country’s port system. There are several factors that influence port development, one of them being the geographic location of the port. An advantage is rendered to those ports that are located near maritime access routes and networks for easy access to international sea waters. At the same time, the connectivity with the inland infrastructure and proximity to the relevant business destinations on the mainland must be considered. According to Fleming and Hayuth (1994, page 188), these two geographic factors can be denoted as intermediary and centrality, regarding the sea and hinterland proximity respectively. Access to a port is generally determined by some factors which include the geography, weather, routes as well as world choke points which heavily influence the movement of vessels. These factors are taken into consideration during infrastructure designs to ensure compensating of costs where one periphery comes into play. It is however very important to ensure that the hinterland access is not compromised since shipping deliveries must ultimately reach the mainland. In the UK, optimisation of the inland connectivity through cooperation and coordination may offer solutions to possible system weaknesses. Port of Grimsby is located 10km from the open sea on the Humber estuary and it is the main food corridor. The Humber Sea Terminal can be accessed by both rail and road. The Port of Hull is the UK’s most important short-sea ports. It offers a wide range of facilities and services such as Ro-Ro. Lo-Lo, forest products, liquid and dry bulk, general cargo, consumables and paper. It is the only passenger port in the Humber region. The Port of Goole is the UK’s premier inland port. The port is connected to many berths and canals in West and South Yorkshire by rail connections. The City Region has installations of modern wharfs on the Trent, Humber, Ouse and Hull river systems. This has enabled the City Region to handle bulk commodities. Port Design The port design is also determined by the channel width and port entrance geography. The consideration of the width takes into account the size of ship accessing the port which should reduce time taken by the traffic. The depth of the channel must accommodate the size of the vessels accessing the port. The port area should ensure free stopping as well as vessel swinging. The port design takes into consideration the relevant space required by equipment. Examples of port equipment units include cargo cranes, container cranes, garb cranes, rubber tyred gantry cranes, specialised unloading systems, rail and tyred transtainers, floating cranes, terminal trailers, floating docks, industrial travelifts, overhead gantry cranes, shipyard cranes and trailers, pedestal cranes, shiplift and syncrolift. Port designers take into consideration the space required by the equipment at the port, to ensure that the space is sufficient even for expansion (Cullinane, 2002, page 430).A designer needs to know the depth of the water channel so that they can make necessary expansion of the port. The design should be able to handle nearly all the vessels including the modern vessels. At the Humber Sea Terminals, creation of a drainage solution to handle underground and storm water enhances the operation of the port since the Humber Estuary faces uncertain weather conditions. The created drainage stabilises the port, since the natural geographic topology can not allow such port operation. Projection of berths in to the sea may be necessitated where the harbour is not deep enough to allow vessels to dock without problems. The topography of the Humber Sea Terminals requires creation of such berths due to the shallow waters around the Humber Estuary. Cargo in the UK Ports The UK has approximately 120 active ports and 15 of these ports handle the bulk of the freight volume. The freight goes through the ports between Southampton and Felixstowe. Humber ports account for over a third of the total sea freight in UK. Majority of the freight is coal rather than containerised traffic. There are three ways of transportation of sea freight in UK; RO-RO (Roll On / Roll Off ferry traffic), bulk maritime marine and container traffic. Ro-Ro market in UK is divided into four segments; car carrying trades, regular liner trades with Ro-RO facilities, ferry transport for passengers who have cars and who do no have and at the same time offering rolling freight, and freight only Ro-Ro transport. Dover and the Channel Tunnel constitute most of the Ro-Ro market. Bulk freight consists of products such as coal, forest products, project freight and oil. These products constitute a majority of freight which passes through Humber Ports. Coal freight is large in Humber Ports because of the power stations in the region. Container freight is not common in UK due to shallow depth of the Humber Ports. Most of the largest modern vessels can not dock at these Humber Ports. A new trend called Port Centric logistics is emerging and it has caused many companies to locate near port facilities in order to reduce costs and improve services. Ports such as Teesside argue that it is logical to locate these companies near the ports. They argue it will cut down the number of empty return containers on roads by emptying imported containers at the port. This will allow faster repositioning of containers to other ports that require them. For example, Sainsbury previously stripped their containers at inland RDC but now their containers are emptied at Felixstowe. This has eliminated the return of empty containers by roads (University of Hull 2010). Ports and Vessel Types Ports in Humber region include: Grimsby and Immingham, Hull and Goole. Although the ports are geographically local to each other, they are different in both size and limitations and have restrictions on the vessel sizes they can facilitate. Services such as Ro-Ro (Roll on – Roll off) and Lo-Lo (Lift on – Lift off) are only available at certain ports. The Port of Hull channel has a water depth of between 4.9 to 6.1 meters. It can handle a cargo pier of the height between 6.4 to 7.6 meters. The mean tide is 6 feet and the anchorage is between 9.4 to 10 meters. The oil terminal at the port is between 6.4 to 7.6 meters. The port type is harbour and its size is medium. The harbour type is River Tide Gate and its size is medium. There are entrance restrictions in this port; when the tide is high and there is an overhead limit. The Port of Goole channel has a water depth of between 3.4 to 4.6 meters. It can handle a cargo pier of the height between 4.9 to 6.1 meters. The mean tide is 4 feet and does not offer anchorage facilities. The type of port is River Port and its size is small. The harbour type is River Tide Gate and its size is small. There are entrance restrictions in this port; when the tide is high and there is an overhead limit. The Port of Grimsby channel has a water depth of between 6.4 to 7.6 meters. It can handle a cargo pier of the height between 7.1 to 9.1 meters. The mean tide is 14 feet and the anchorage is between 4.9 to 6.1 meters. The type of port is harbour and its size is small. The harbour type is River Basin and its size is medium. There are entrance restrictions in this port; when the tide is high and there is an overhead limit. The Port of Immingham channel has a water depth of between 7.1 to 9.1 meters. It can handle a cargo pier of the height between 11 to 12.2 meters. The mean tide is 5 feet and the anchorage is between 7.1 to 9.1 meters. The oil terminal at the port is between 11 to 12.2 meters. The port type is harbour and its size is large. The harbour type is River Tide Gate and its size is medium. There are entrance restrictions in this port; when the tide is high and there is an overhead limit (University of Hull 2010). The initial terminal design should be in anticipation of a wide variety of vessels, which implies that future development of the port should be considered. There are several vessels in UK ports and each vessel is designed for a specific purpose. The size of the vessel that accesses a particular port must be considered when coming up with the port designing. The geographic topology can be favourable for short sea shipping, which implies that the movement of freight is by the means of sea alone from one country to the other. This happens where the continent has a fine connection by sea ports (Lodewijks et al, 2008, page 205). Small sea vessels enhance upstream navigation to increase short sea shipping network. Port Infrastructure The cost of port time occasioned by transport infrastructure insufficiency maybe avoided by putting in place the correct strategies to reduce congestion at the port. Port and inter port connectivity with the overseas market as well as the hinterland determines the cost to be incurred during the actual delivery services. When the management operates at reduced costs of operation, it is practically possible that customers will be attracted to the benefits of lowered shipping costs. Logistics at reducing costs therefore place a lot of importance on the infrastructure availed. It has been argued that improving the infrastructure connectivity and reducing the costs thereon is similar to geographically positioning the port in an ideal location. This implies that efficiency at the port in terms of transport connection networks is a vital aspect of logistics and strategies to be adopted by the management (Juhel, 2000, page 11). The type of cargo to be ferried by sea also determines the design of the port. When the sea terminal is targeted for container transportation, container handling requirements must be considered at the port and necessary handling equipment availed (Nooteboom 1999, page 63). The demand of the container in the hinterland and the availability of the ferrying infrastructure are put into consideration. The supply of the containers from the port to the hinterland necessitates a clear network with capacity to handle the consignments. Depots may be created at an inland location for temporary storage to ease congestion at the port. The supply and demand forces of the market may force a certain pattern to be observed in the chain. Container and consignment arrivals at the port directly determine the flow into the hinterland. Therefore the effective pattern observed is strictly studied and followed to ensure efficiency. Freight distribution is a sensitive area since the nature of the cargo and its delivery urgency may force certain attributes which necessitates prompt delivery arrangements. Enclosed Docks and Their Uses Where the vessel loading and unloading section of a port is within an enclosure, the structure is called an enclosed dock. Generally, docks are built in the open but some factors may necessitate the construction of a structure to completely enclose the dock. Some of the reasons for such a design include weather and the type of cargo. Adverse weather may be with regard to the vessel, cargo or workforce. The enclosure must however meet some standards, one of which is ventilation. Other conditions include safety caution in form of disaster control to ensure that the cargo and the workforce remain safe. High security cargo is best handled in an enclosed dock. The design of an enclosed dock is suitable and highly recommended for unloading of cargo when the value of the cargo is too big and vandalism is likely. Proliferation of cargo at the dock can be reduced if the access to the dock is significantly limited, which is highly achievable in an enclosed dock. The integrity of the cargo is also enhanced since the enclosure protects the cargo from adverse weather conditions (Smith and Tompkins, 1998, p428). Conclusion Sea transport carries the bulk of most commodities that the world produces. All these cargo can not be ferried by air, road or rail transportation alone. Sea ferry makes it easier to transport huge cargos at a single moment than would be in rail or road or air transport. It is estimated that approximately 90% of world trade is carried by the shipping industry. Within the UK, 60% of goods are imported with forecasts indicating an increase to 80% in 20 years time. Without the industry of shipping, the import and export of goods on the scale necessary for today’s world would not be possible. Seaborne trade continues to increase, bringing benefits for consumers across the globe through competitive shipping costs. With the increasing efficiency of shipping as a method of transportation and improved economic liberalisation, the prospects for the industry's continued growth appear to be successful. The UK has a good port connectivity which holds a lot of potential if coordination and cooperation can be enhanced beyond the current level. Port locations in the UK are better positioned to enjoy the benefits of centrality and intermediary at the same time. It can be therefore predicted that improvement of the port system in the UK will dramatically open up the country as well as offer cheaper solutions to transport problems. References Smith J. D., & Tompkins, J. A., (1998). Warehouse management handbook. Raleigh, NC: Tompkins Press University of Hull. (2010) The logistics sector in the Yorkshire and Humber region, Yorkshire Forward: The Region’s Development Agency [Online]. Available at: http://www.yorkshire-forward.com (Accessed: 22 October 2010). Willington, D. E. (2008) Economic geography. Vancouver: READ BOOKS. Read More